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News: 2012-06-13 St. Vincent VSP Info

Voluntary Separation Program

On May 14, Providence offered a Voluntary Separation Program (VSP) to its non-represented employees. This is something we commonly call a “severance package” and is an opportunity for employees to resign and receive some sort of monetary payment in exchange. Providence can then reduce its workforce without having to have a mandatory layoff/reduction in force.

Q: Why didn’t Providence offer this VSP to the nurses along with the other Employees on May 14?

A: Providence will be offering the VSP to the nurses as well, but ONA needed to discuss the terms of this offer with Providence and reach an agreement prior to the offer being made to RNs. We reached an agreement on June 1.

Q: How will it work?

A: Under our agreement, a nurse who likes the terms of the VSP and wants to resign will submit a request. How that request gets approved was one of the questions ONA had upon hearing about this program. The goal of this program is to eliminate the position of the person requesting this VSP. This becomes very difficult when we look at nurses who are providing direct patient care as it is much harder to simply eliminate those positions. We do not anticipate that many nurses will be approved for this program. Our agreement covers what happens if it gets competitive to approve the VSP applications. For example, if two nurses want the VSP, but only one can be granted in the unit and shift, the decision will be based on seniority if skill mix needed for the unit is satisfied.